U.S. patent number 10,704,363 [Application Number 15/679,539] was granted by the patent office on 2020-07-07 for tubing or annulus pressure operated borehole barrier valve.
This patent grant is currently assigned to BAKER HUGHES, A GE COMPANY, LLC. The grantee listed for this patent is Baker Hughes, a GE Company, LLC. Invention is credited to Todd C. Jackson, Michael H. Johnson.
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United States Patent |
10,704,363 |
Johnson , et al. |
July 7, 2020 |
Tubing or annulus pressure operated borehole barrier valve
Abstract
An operating system for a barrier valve or safety valve is
responsive to increments in annulus or tubing pressure. An indexing
device controls valves that selectively direct pressure applied to
one side of an operating piston or the other for attaining the open
and closed positions of the barrier valve. One such indexing device
can be a j-slot. Other devices that operate a pair of hydraulic
valves in tandem for pressure direction to one side of an actuation
piston or another are contemplated. The system needs no electric
power and there are no control lines needed to run below the
production packer in the case of using annulus pressure to actuate
the piston or at all if access to tubing pressure is provided from
the vicinity of the barrier valve components.
Inventors: |
Johnson; Michael H. (Katy,
TX), Jackson; Todd C. (Houston, TX) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Baker Hughes, a GE Company, LLC |
Houston |
TX |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
BAKER HUGHES, A GE COMPANY, LLC
(Houston, TX)
|
Family
ID: |
63668073 |
Appl.
No.: |
15/679,539 |
Filed: |
August 17, 2017 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20190055816 A1 |
Feb 21, 2019 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E21B
34/101 (20130101); E21B 34/08 (20130101); E21B
23/004 (20130101); E21B 34/14 (20130101); E21B
2200/04 (20200501) |
Current International
Class: |
E21B
34/14 (20060101); E21B 23/00 (20060101); E21B
34/08 (20060101); E21B 34/10 (20060101); E21B
34/00 (20060101) |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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|
|
|
|
0500343 |
|
Nov 1995 |
|
EP |
|
2206880 |
|
Jan 2010 |
|
EP |
|
2011043931 |
|
Apr 2011 |
|
WO |
|
Primary Examiner: Fuller; Robert E
Assistant Examiner: Sebesta; Christopher J
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Hunter; Shawn
Claims
We claim:
1. An actuation assembly for a tubular string mounted barrier
valve, comprising: a housing; a double acting piston within the
housing operably connected to a valve member such that movement of
said piston n a first direction opens the barrier valve and
movement of said piston n a second direction closes the barrier
valve; opposed compartments defined within the housing on opposed
sides of the double acting piston, the opposed compartments
comprising a first compartment and a second compartment; a
hydraulically operated valved manifold comprising an inlet pressure
source from an annular space about said tubing string, said
manifold selectively directing said inlet pressure source into said
first compartment to flow fluid from the second compartment to a
lower pressure location as the double acting piston is moved in a
first direction; and said manifold further selectively directing
said inlet pressure source into said second compartment via
actuation of at least one valve within the valved manifold to flow
fluid from the first compartment to the lower pressure location as
the double acting piston is moved in a second direction; wherein
said valved manifold comprises a pair of valves selectively
operated by said inlet pressure source which are repositioned in
tandem between first and second configurations, wherein in the
first configuration the valves open a first flow path from the
inlet pressure source to the first compartment while isolating the
first flow path from the lower pressure location and in the second
configuration the valves open a second flow path from the inlet
pressure source to the second compartment while isolating the
second compartment from the lower pressure location.
2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein: said inlet pressure source is
from a line extending through a production packer into an upper
annulus.
3. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said lower pressure location
is internal to the tubing string.
4. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said lower pressure location
is in a lower annulus defined below said production packer.
5. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said lower pressure location
is a chamber with lower pressure than said inlet pressure
source.
6. The assembly of claim 1, wherein: cycles of increasing and
decreasing pressure from said inlet pressure source reconfigures
the positions of said valves in tandem.
7. The assembly of claim 6, wherein: said valved manifold further
comprising at least one indexing device such that after a
predetermined number of said cycles of increasing and decreasing
pressure, said valves are reconfigured to change movement direction
of said double acting piston.
8. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said upper annulus defined
above said production packer is clear of control lines apart from
said line extending through to immediately above said production
packer.
9. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: said lower pressure location
is in a lower annulus through a vent line from said valved manifold
that further comprises a vent check valve, whereupon venting
through said vent line into the lower annulus occurs when upper
annulus pressure is increased to the level that said vent check
valve can open.
10. The assembly of claim 9, wherein: said upper annulus defined
above said production packer is clear of control lines apart from
said line extending through to immediately above said production
packer.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is deep set barrier valves in a borehole
and more particularly where the actuation is accomplished with
cycled tubing or annulus pressure in conjunction with an indexing
device to avoid the need for external control lines outside the
tubular string to the barrier valve.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Typically barrier valves or subsurface safety valves are put in a
tubular string thousands of meters below a surface location and
operated by one or more control lines. As wells get deeper and
deeper a concern has arisen among operators that the control line
or lines that are used to actuate the barrier valves or safety
valves can be damaged when running in the tubular string. Typically
control systems for such valves have a one line or two line system
to an actuation piston that operates the barrier valve. A two line
system is pressure balanced from the perspective of control line
hydrostatic pressure because the lines run parallel to each other
to the same depth and have the same hydrostatic pressure in each
line. One line systems extend a control line to one side of a
piston and the other side is referenced to a pressurized
compressible gas chamber or a substantial spring to offset the
hydrostatic pressure in the single control line.
Many control systems for barrier or safety valves have focused on
mechanisms to ensure failsafe operation in the event of seal leaks
of actuation piston seals or in the event of a control line
shearing or otherwise failing. In those emergency situations
reference lines from the control system to the annulus for example
have been used to insure that regardless of the nature of the
system component failure, a net force on the actuation piston is
applied and the valve or tool goes to its designated fail safe
position, which is typically the closed position. Typical of such
designs are U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,743,833; 7,434,626; 6,173,785 and
6,866,101. One reference suggests the use of tubing or annulus
pressure to raise a workstring to create potential energy in the
weight of the string so that when needed to go to a failsafe
position the weight of the string can act as kinetic energy to move
the tool to the failsafe position upon failure of the control line
system to normally operate the took. This reference is U.S. Pat.
No. 8,162,066. Also relevant are U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,056,643 and
6,210,807.
FIGS. 1-3 show different positions of a barrier valve using dual
control lines 10 and 12 leading to an actuator housing 14 that has
opposed compartments 16 and 18 on opposed sides of actuating piston
20. A schematically illustrated actuation linkage 22 is connected
to valve member 24 that is typically a ball with a passage 26
through it that is selectively aligned with passage 28 of the
schematically illustrated tubular string 30 that typically has a
production packer 32. In FIG. 1 the actuating piston is midway in
its travel representing a partial alignment of passage 26 with
passage 28. In FIG. 2 piston 20 has been pushed uphole with
pressure in one of the control lines 10 and 12 applied and pressure
in the other of the two control lines removed. Conversely, in FIG.
3 the pressure is applied to the other of the two control lines and
removed from the other of the two control lines to get the piston
20 to move downhole to a stop position for a fully open position of
passage 26 aligned with passage 28.
As previously explained there are installations, particularly
offshore where depths can get to 10,000 meters and beyond and the
deep placement of the barrier valve to meet regulations for
redundant isolation entails long control line runs that not only
slow the tripping into the hole procedure but also present a risk
of loss of use of the barrier valve if one or both control lines is
damaged when running into hole. The present invention addresses
this issue with a system that can operate using annulus or tubing
pressure. Cycles of applied annulus or tubing pressure will
configure a known shuttle valve to direct the available annulus or
tubing pressure to the top side or underside of an actuating piston
so that the barrier valve can be actuated between an open and
closed position when the available pressure is properly directed
and removed. The system can be fully hydro-mechanical. Using check
valves the applied pressure connection and the vent connection can
be in the same space or one can be in the annulus and the other in
the tubing. These and other features of the present invention will
be more readily understood by those skilled in the art from a
review of the description of the preferred embodiment and the
associated drawings while recognizing that the full scope of the
invention is to be determined by the appended claims.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An operating system for a barrier valve or safety valve is
responsive to changes in annulus or tubing pressure. A known
indexing device in a new application selectively directs pressure
applied to one side of an operating piston or the other for
attaining the open and closed positions of the barrier valve.
Another such indexing device can be a j-slot. Other devices that
operate a pair of hydraulic valves in tandem for pressure direction
to one side of an actuation piston or another are contemplated. The
system needs no electric power and there are no control lines
needed to run below the production packer in the case of using
annulus pressure to actuate the piston or at all if access to
tubing pressure is provided from the vicinity of the barrier valve
components.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a prior art dual control line actuation system for a
barrier valve with the valve in the half open position;
FIG. 2 is the view of FIG. 1 with the harrier valve in the closed
position;
FIG. 3 is the view of FIG. 2 with the barrier valve in the fully
open position;
FIG. 4 is schematic illustration of a tubing or annulus operated
actuation system showing the valve manifold responsive to pressure
cycles for aligning the provided pressure to above or below the
actuation piston;
FIG. 5 is the view of FIG. 4 with the actuator moved to the barrier
valve closed position;
FIG. 6 is the view of FIG. 4 with the barrier valve in the fully
open position;
FIG. 7 is a simplified view of FIGS. 4 and 5 showing the barrier
valve open and a pressure source and vent location in the upper
annulus;
FIG. 8 is the view of FIG. 7 with the barrier valve closed;
FIG. 9 is the view of FIG. 7 with the pressure connection in the
upper annulus and the exhaust connection in the lower annulus below
the production packer and the barrier valve open;
FIG. 10 is the view of FIG. 9 with the barrier valve closed.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to FIG. 4, the valve member 24 is omitted so that other
parts of the actuation system can be more dearly illustrated. The
actuation piston 20 with opposed chambers 16 and 18 are the same as
described in FIGS. 1-3. The pressure that will ultimately move the
piston 20 is different than in FIG. 1-3 where control lines 10 and
12 running from a surface location were used. Instead there are two
alternative sources of fluid actuation pressure. One source is
dashed line 34 that starts through the wall of the tubular string
30. The other alternative source is the upper annulus 36 using a
line 38 that just comes through the production packer 32. Line 38
gives access to the upper annulus 36 from a surface location to
inlet 40 of manifold assembly 42. Alternatively the tubing string
30 is the source of pressure through line 34 that is connected to
inlet 40.
Manifold assembly 42 has an inlet line 44 that branches to lines 46
and 48. Line 46 leads to chamber 16 and line 48 leads to line 50
that leads into chamber 18. Line 52 leads into valve 54 which
selectively connects line 52 to vent 56. Line 5 leads from lines 48
and 50 into valve 54 for selective alignment with the vent 56.
Valve 60 selectively connects line 44 to lines 48 or 46.
Pushing piston 20 down requires raising, pressure in chamber 16 and
venting chamber 18. The way this is done is that the pressure
applied in line 44 is directed to line 46 using valve 60 and valve
54 is aligned to direct line 50 from chamber 18 to the vent
connection 56. Conversely, to push piston 20 up pressure from line
44 is directed through valve 60 to line 50 and pressure in chamber
18 is directed to vent 56 through line 46 and valve 54.
The valves 54 and 60 are schematically illustrated and can have one
or more indexing features included so that a predetermined number
of applications and removals of pressure in line 44 from upper
annulus 36 or tubing string 30 will operate these multi-directional
valves into the needed alignment for moving piston 20 from the
barrier open position of FIG. 6 to the part open position of FIG. 4
to the fully closed position of the barrier valve in FIG. 5.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that what is described is
a hydraulically operated piston that is double acting and can move
in opposed direction for opposed open or closed positions of a
barrier valve or some other tool. Through the use of a manifold
assembly at least two flow direction orientations can be adopted so
that hydraulic pressure can be applied to one side of a piston
while an opposing side of the piston is connected to a vent line to
a lower zone. The motive pressure can be either from the annulus or
from the tubing. The vent can be directed to a log per pressure
zone. For example if the motive pressure is from the tubing the
vent outlet can be in the annulus and vice versa. Another way to
get the needed differential is to provide a housing leading from
the vent that is at atmospheric or low pressure whether the vent is
in the annulus or in the tubing or the tubing wall. The unique
source of motive pressure is coupled to an indexer to configure
valves 54 and 60 to direct pressure on one side of piston 20 and
relieve pressure from an opposite side of piston 20 to get piston
20 moving in the desired direction. The indexer can be associated
with each valve or one can be used that repositions both valves in
tandem. The indexer simply allows the use of a predetermined number
of pressure cycles before valve movement exists. It can be a two
position indexer where simply adding pressure reconfigures the
valves 54 and 60 and moves the piston 20. Different manifold
possibilities are envisioned as long as there is the ability to
make piston 20 double acting with a discrete pressure source and a
discrete vent destination. A common valve member that actuates the
needed flow configurations with movement of a common stem in
opposed directions can be used as in a shuttle valve or valves with
return springs to get the needed flow configurations for upward or
downward piston 20 movement. In fact, manifold assembly 42 is a
repurposed existing product offered by Baker Hughes, a GE company
under the name of In Force Single Line Switch Product Family No.
H81503. This product is described as follows when used for
different applications with a single control line:
"The InForce.TM. Single Line Switch (SLS) enables the usage of a
hydraulic valve or choke designed with a balanced piston to be
operated with a single control line rather than two control lines.
The SLS is a modular hydraulic device that can be mounted above an
HCM-Plus.TM. or HCM-A.TM. choke. The open and close ports of the
valve attach to dedicated ports within the SLS. The single control
line is then run to surface minimizing the overall number of
control lines within the system. The SLS receives pressure from a
single hydraulic input and uses a spool and sleeve assembly,
J-slot, and spring to alternate this pressure between the open and
close port of the HCM.TM.. For example, if a given HCM valve is
closed, applying pressure to the SLS input will first open the
valve, allowing the desired zone to be produced. Then when it is
time to isolate the zone, applying pressure to the same line will
close the valve."
The original intended application of this valve is modified so that
it in essence can operate with no control lines to the surface.
Pressure can be provided from an upper annulus to a connection
above a production packer and the vent connection can be directed
into the same upper annulus. In this configuration illustrated in
FIGS. 7 and 8 applying pressure in line 40 will open check valve 42
and cause barrier valve 44 to go from the open position of FIG. 7
to the closed position of FIG. 8. Since the exhaust line 46 is in
the same upper annulus 48 as line 40 above production packer 50,
the check valve 52 on the exhaust line 46 will not open when
pressure from upper annulus 48 is applied to line 40. However the
internal components of the multifunction valve SLS will still allow
the barrier valve to move closed. As pressure in the upper annulus
is reduced below the built up pressure in line 46 which is trapped
in the SLS due to the presence of check valve 42, the check valve
52 will open into annulus 48 and allow the trapped pressure in the
SLS to vent to upper annulus 48 above the production packer 50.
Another application of pressure in annulus 48 will then reopen
barrier valve 44 by applying pressure to an opposite side of the
double acting piston 20 as described above. FIGS. 9 and 10 only
differ from FIGS. 7 and 8 in that the pressure line 40 and the vent
line 46 are on opposite sides of the production packer 50. The
check valve 42 is not needed as lower annulus 54 allows check valve
52 to open when upper annulus 48 pressure is raised above lower
annulus 54 pressure. In FIGS. 7 and 8 since the pressure
application and venting were in the same space the check valve 42
was needed to hold the raised pressure in the SLS until upper
annulus 48 pressure was reduced.
The described system does not require electric power and is fairly
simple to construct. It avoids the need for control lines to extend
beyond a short distance above the production packer 32. When
actuating with tubing pressure control lines are not needed at all.
If the input pressure is from the upper annulus 36 the vent can go
to the tubing through line 56 or to a low pressure chamber 56''
that can be located in the annulus or the tubing or the tubing
wall. If the input pressure is from the tubing string 30 the vent
line 56 can lead to a low pressure chamber 56'' as previously
described or anywhere in the annulus above or below packer 32. If
the annulus below set packer 32 is at a lower pressure than the
upper annulus 36 then the input pressure can be from the upper
annuls 36 and the vent 56 can terminate in a lower annulus below
the production packer 32.
The above description is illustrative of the preferred embodiment
and many modifications may be made by those skilled in the art
without departing from the invention whose scope is to be
determined from the literal and equivalent scope of the claims
below:
* * * * *